Jinko 365 watt panel low amp readout

[TheeBigGuy]

I want to check the diodes on this Jinko panel but after opening up the back panel it looks like Jinko filled it with some kind of white foam... Can I get to the diodes without doing any damage trying to remove this white stuff? Is it some kind of heat sink type foam? Any ideas thanks in advance

 

[tictag]

White goo is usually in therefore for ingress protection on cheaper panels, never heard of a foam-like material before. I doubt a PV diode pack would need heat sinking, they are usually low voltage schottkey diodes and spec'ed for the real-life current a PV panel produces.

Why do you need to check them? Don't know the experience of others, but I've never had one fail.

You can actually check both blocking and bypass (if fitted) diodes without having to physically access them, there are loads of articles on the Interweb, Google 'PV bypass diode test'.

 

[TheeBigGuy]

White goo is usually in therefore for ingress protection on cheaper panels, never heard of a foam-like material before. I doubt a PV diode pack would need heat sinking, they are usually low voltage schottkey diodes and spec'ed for the real-life current a PV panel produces.

Why do you need to check them? Don't know the experience of others, but I've never had one fail.

You can actually check both blocking and bypass (if fitted) diodes without having to physically access them, there are loads of articles on the Interweb, Google 'PV bypass diode test'.

I have two panels under exact conditions one is showing 8.2 amps (9amp panel) while the other is showing 5.2 amps... Both putting out the same correct volts.. From what I read once I hook these two up in series the lower amp panel will deteriorate the other panel over time... So I want to get to the diodes and replace a bad one to get my amps back up..And I could call this white goo... Do you know if that goo can be removed?
thanks

 

[tictag]

Yeah, if it's the stuff I've seen before, it's just there to protect from water ingress and has no other purpose. You can use acetone or isopropyl alcohol to soften the Silastic and clean things up after removing the bulk of it.

This might not be a diode fault, btw, a connection issue could create the same symptoms. It might be worthwhile leaving your multi-meter connected whilst running a thumb down the cell inter-connections. If you get a current spike, a cell connection might well be broken.